


Blind trust

by PeterHaleforAlpha



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Blind Nathan, Blindness trouble, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-14
Updated: 2015-11-14
Packaged: 2018-05-01 15:54:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5211818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeterHaleforAlpha/pseuds/PeterHaleforAlpha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nathan gets hit with a blindness Trouble and Duke has to look after him while Audrey tries to fix the Trouble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blind trust

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wolfwithpanthereyes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfwithpanthereyes/gifts).



> This is a birthday present for a very special person. Love you :*

It was not the first time that Audrey handed over Nathan to Duke as if he was a little child that she hadn’t the time to watch at the moment. And most of the time Duke complained at first, with wide gestures and a loud voice. Not this time.

Duke already saw from afar that something was wrong with Nathan. Audrey held his hand while they were approaching the Rouge and Nathan’s movements were cautious and stiff.

“What happened?” he asked immediately after jumping off of his boat and walking towards the two detectives.

“I need you to watch Nathan for a while,” Audrey ordered at once, urgency in her tone.

Duke expected loud protest from Nathan because at least he seemed to be in his own mind but he kept quiet and this was scaring Duke more than the weird movements if he was honest. Nathan would never stay willingly with Duke if he would be able to help Audrey even in the slightest so he had to be sure that he couldn’t.

Duke nodded at once. “Sure.”

Audrey seemed relieved. “Thanks, Duke.” She smiled briefly and then turned to Nathan. She cupped his head with her hands. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “I will solve this trouble, promise.”

He nodded but didn’t say anything at all. He took her hand again and it seemed as if he didn’t want to let go. But Audrey was leaving and broke contact with him and Duke swore he had seen Nathan never more devastated. He was moving his fingers slightly as if he wanted to test if they were still working.

“Nathan?” Duke asked quietly because Nathan seemed to have forgotten that he was still there. He wasn’t looking at him, hadn’t the whole time and Duke was eager to know what had actually happened. Why wasn’t Nathan able to help Audrey and why did he need someone to look after him?

The sound of his voice let Nathan turn around, raising his head and looking in his direction but not directly at him. First Duke thought it was just Nathan’s habit when he didn’t want to talk about a certain thing to not make eye contact. That was before Duke noticed that something was off with Nathan’s eyes. They seemed lighter than normal. He breathed in sharply as he realized what had happened and why Nathan was moving so stiff and was so quiet and didn’t seem to notice much.

“A blindness Trouble,” Nathan said blankly and shrugged with his shoulders. “Can’t see.”

Duke swallowed hard and nodded. “Nathan, I’m-“ He broke off and reached out for Nathan but stopped himself. Touch wouldn’t do anything at this moment. Nathan wouldn’t even realize that Duke was touching him so Duke pulled back again. He didn’t want to do anything that Nathan wouldn’t be comfortable with and Nathan was not able to tell at the moment. He wouldn’t _know_ if Duke did anything at all.

“It’s okay. Just let’s go downstairs.”

Duke eyed Nathan suspiciously. Of course nothing was okay. He knew how essential sight was for Nathan with his affliction. If you couldn’t feel you relied on your other senses, especially the strongest one. Without being able to see what he was doing he couldn’t do anything at all properly. As Duke saw Nathan was still capable of walking but probably because he knew how he had to move. He could easily run into a wall like this or fall over the edge of the landing stage into the water and drown and he would only notice when he couldn’t breathe anymore.

But Duke agreed finally because he knew how Nathan was when it came to talking about feelings. He would rather not and pretend that everything was fine. “Okay, just follow my voice for the start.” He led him to the edge of the boat and was thinking how to get Nathan on board. Duke jumped on it and sure he could tell Nathan to do exactly the same but his landing would probably not be very aesthetic.

Duke reached out for his arm but stopped again. “You need to jump now.”

Nathan nodded. “Okay.”

“Can I grab your arm to steady you?”

Nathan furrowed his brows, looking confused over to him. “Why do you ask? You never did before?”

“Because you could say no in the past. Now you wouldn’t notice and I don’t want to do anything that you don’t want.”

“Just take my arm and help me.” Nathan just jumped right at the moment so that Duke had no other choice than to react, reach out for Nathan’s arm and steady him so that he wouldn’t fall over. “And? Still standing?”

Duke nodded before he realized that Nathan couldn’t see him. “Yeah, just so.”

 

Somehow Duke managed to guide Nathan all the way down below deck and sat him down at the dinner table. From there on Duke had totally no idea what to do next. Nathan was safe there on Duke’s boat so there was nothing else to do. There were no sharp objects anywhere near him where he could accidentally hurt himself with, so all was good besides the fact that nothing was okay.

Nathan was quiet and reserved, more even than usual and it broke Duke’s heart. He wanted to help but he just didn’t know what to do and asking wasn’t an option. Nathan wouldn’t admit to need help or the need of cheering up.

“Duke?”

“Still here, sorry.” Duke had sat down across from Nathan and from there on he had been totally silent.

“Can we talk?”

Duke furrowed his brows, suspicion in his eyes. What would Nathan want to talk about? “Well, okay. What do you want to talk about?”

Nathan shrugged. “Just anything. I don’t like the silence.” His voice got quieter. “There is nothing else.”

Duke couldn’t even imagine how Nathan had to feel right now. There was total blackness around him and he couldn’t even feel if he was sitting or standing or where he was at all. He had to feel more lost than he ever had in his entire life. Wanting to hear someone’s voice just to know that there was anything at all seemed very logical. “Remember the time we got lost in that cave?” (*)

He had to think about it. There was no way seeing Nathan like this now and not think about this little adventure they had when they were kids.

“I hated you for this – for weeks!”

“Come on, you always hated me,” Duke joked with a little chuckle.

“True but this was awful. And we didn’t even find a treasure.” Nathan pretended to be accusing but he smiled too so Duke knew it was only a joke.

“You had fun, at least a little, right?” Duke only wanted Nathan to have some fun that was all and then they got lost in the back of the cave and it was pretty dark there. The problem was it was only a few weeks after Nathan’s trouble activated and Nathan was pretty lost and scared in this situation. But this was the day where they became kind of friends, at least from Duke’s point of view. And they still were Duke hoped.

Nathan chuckled quietly. “Maybe a little. In the beginning.”

Duke smiled widely, proud of himself although this was half a lifetime ago. He watched Nathan again and the smile faded away. He remembered how scared Nathan had been that day. He had been a kid, too young to hide his fears. Now he was way better in this and he was probably scared too and just didn’t show it. “I can’t imagine how this must be for you.”

Nathan sighed, obviously uncomfortable talking about this subject. “It’s not that bad. It’s only temporary. Parker will solve this Trouble.”

“Yeah, I know.” Still, Duke couldn’t change the fact that he was thinking about Nathan’s feelings because he probably didn’t. “But this doesn’t mean that it can’t still suck.”

“Just stop it, Duke, and tell me another story.”

Duke actually considered to push further but decided against it. Maybe Nathan was in a bad place right now but it didn’t always help to talk about it. Maybe he just needed some distraction and if Duke had to tell just a story so that Nathan would feel better he would totally do it.

He chose the story of the two dwarfs, the lady in the blue dress, the donkey and the bag of crystal meth which everybody thought were candy. It was one of his best stories and he doubted that he told Nathan it yet. He barely talked with him about his time away from Haven because both didn’t like to talk about this time.

 

Half an hour later they were both laughing with tears in their eyes. “This is ridiculous. You made this up,” Nathan said between his laughter.

“I swear on the Rouge that it’s the total truth.”

Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“Okay, okay, maybe the story developed a little over the years but there is still some truth in it,” Duke chuckled.

“It was a good story though,” Nathan admitted. “And it sucked a little less while listening to your voice,” he added more quietly.

Duke smiled satisfied. “Glad I could help. I know I’m not Audrey and she would have been the better choice for being with you right now.” At least they could have been handholding all the time and Nathan wouldn’t feel so out of place the entire time. There would have been someone. But Audrey needed to fix the Trouble and she couldn’t drag Nathan along with her. So Nathan had to put up with him again.

“Audrey has to fix the Trouble.”

“Yeah, I know but you probably would prefer another person. There are so many people who would love to help you both.”

Nathan raised his head, looking right at Duke and if Duke wouldn’t know it better he would say that Nathan was able to see. Maybe he just got better at locating the source of the voice. “Actually I asked Parker to bring me here.”

“You did what?” Duke couldn’t hide his astonishment. Nathan never came willingly to him.

“Duke, I can’t feel and I can’t see.” Nathan was completely serious now. “There is only blackness and nothingness. I needed someone I can totally trust.”

“And that’s me?” Duke was totally surprised about this confession.

“It’s been you since the day in the cave. Don’t act as if you didn’t know.”

Duke was literally speechless for a moment. Nathan made pretty clear more than one time how much he didn’t trust him. He actually wanted to be on the list of his potential murderers. If that didn’t show Duke how much Nathan mistrusted him he wasn’t sure what would. Okay, their relationship had gotten better lately but it wasn’t long ago that Nathan didn’t trust him at all. “There are a lot of feelings between us that are constant but I wouldn’t include trust.”

“I know I made a mistake with not trusting you and thinking the worst. This was not fair without giving you a chance to prove yourself. I’m sorry.”

Duke couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. Was this really Nathan who was sitting in front of him? Was this blindness messing with his head too? The Nathan he knew would never talk so openly about his mistakes. He wouldn’t even acknowledge it as such a thing. Duke shook his head and stood up. He actually didn’t know what he should respond to that. So he grabbed a bottle of whiskey out of his cupboard and poured himself a drink.

“Can I get one too?”

Duke didn’t say anything, just grabbed another glass, filled it and put it in front of Nathan. And then he remembered that Nathan still couldn’t see. “Do I have to feed you now?” Even if he would put the glass right in Nathan’s hands it would be a miracle if Nathan actually managed to bring it to his mouth without spilling the whole content.

“No, it’s okay.” Nathan picked up the glass and took a big sip.

Duke’s jaw dropped, pointing a finger at him. “You can … you can-“ He was interrupted by the ringing of his phone. He didn’t need to look at the screen to know who it was. “Hey, Audrey,” he answered the call. “Yes, yes, he is his old self and wants to be picked up again.” Duke nodded while listening to Audrey. “Yeah, see you soon.”

Nathan looked at him, disappointment in his eyes. “Did I do something wrong?”

Duke sighed and emptied his glass. “No, you did everything right. I’m just not used to you being honest with me.”

“And this is a bad thing?” Nathan’s voice got a little louder and angrier now.

“No, of course not but a few weeks ago you wanted to kill me, Nate, and now you are sitting here telling me that I’m the one person that you can fully trust – accept Audrey of course.”

Nathan nodded. “And?”

“And what? We should totally forget that because this will be pretty awkward the next time we see each other. We were just a little emotional today. We should not let this affect our professional relationship.”

Nathan laughed and nodded finally. “Okay, deal. But can I do one more emotional thing before we go back to business?”

Before Duke could answer to the question Nathan had already jumped up and wrapped his arms around Duke’s body. For a moment he was too startled to react at all but then hugged him back. “Thank you,” he heard Nathan’s whispered words against his ear.

**Author's Note:**

> (*) This is a reference to my story "To be a good friend" (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3612525)


End file.
